Soup Kitchen

The First United Methodist Church of Deltona will be opening a soup kitchen for those in need.The Our Father's Table Soup Kitchen is to open Jan. 4. Free food supplied by the Second Harvest Food Bank will be served every Friday from 5:30 to 7 p.m.The church is at 1045 E. Normandy Blvd. in Deltona. For additional information, call (407) 574-1391.SHERIFF'S HONORSThe Volusia County Sheriff's Office recently honored its top employees for the last quarter of 1997 with Sheriff Bob Vogel and his command staff choosing the deputy, employee and volunteer of the quarter.

Sanford commissioners have decided to try to sell the city's Little Red Schoolhouse, a 130-year-old historic building on South Palmetto Avenue which was one of Seminole County's first public schools. "We want to put it on the market and just see if we get any reasonable offers," Commissioner Patty Mahany said. Sanford has owned the wood-framed building since 2010. But the schoolhouse has fallen into disrepair. And city officials say it needs about $64,000 in improvements. The Little Red Schoolhouse was built in 1883 as a public school for white children.

EATONVILLE — It was hard to tell who seemed more pleased by the new soup kitchen at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church: the people who came in for a free bowl of soup, or the people who served it to them. The church volunteers took pains to create a welcoming atmosphere that didn't feel like charity. The tables set up in the church hall were covered in lavender tablecloths with sparkly centerpieces, and men's choir member Mack Chandler sat along one wall crooning to recorded gospels and hymns.

Have you ever had a friend show you an unexpected kindness? In the story, The Fast and the Furriest, Kevin's friend Zach loans him $200 for dog agility classes. It's this investment that makes it possible for Kevin and his dog, Cromwell, to pursue their dream and eventually win the championship. If you think good deeds are only the stuff of fiction, take a look in your local newspaper to see if you can find evidence of kindness in your own town. Look for articles about altruism, or doing good things for others.

Melbourne city officials could solve the growing conflict between downtown merchants and the Daily Bread soup kitchen simply by assigning police to patrol the area regularly.The merchants, claiming that the nearby kitchen draws vagrants who harass and scare away their customers, have been trying to convince city officials that the charity should be closed or moved.Neither of those is a viable option. The city has no legal grounds to close the kitchen. Even if it did, city officials would be hard-pressed to explain that decision to the hundreds of people who support the soup kitchen with their donations of time, money and food.

SANFORD - Residents who opposed a downtown soup kitchen will drop their lawsuit against the city under a settlement reached Thursday that calls for the kitchen to limit its hours and the number of people it can serve. The settlement came after a mediation session between the seven residents of the downtown Historic District who brought the suit, the operator of the soup kitchen and city officials. ``I'm delighted,'' said Jean Metts, executive director of Seminole Volunteer Enterprises, which runs the kitchen.

SANFORD - Downtown merchants and residents in nearby neighborhoods are prepared to fight a proposal by a nonprofit agency to open a soup kitchen for the poor downtown.Several residents who objected to the plan during a City Commission meeting Monday night vowed to fight just as hard to stop the soup kitchen as they did to promote a proposed hotel and conference center in Fort Mellon Park.Bart Rush, a downtown merchant and resident of the historic district, reminded commissioners of how hard he worked to promote the hotel-conference center.

Ask anybody involved with Osceola Daily Bread and the answer is clear: Months and months of prayers have been answered.The county's only soup kitchen can rest easy. A heartfelt community effort to feed the homeless and needy will soon have a permanent home - a place where body and soul can find nourishment.First Baptist Church in Kissimmee has agreed to provide a new home for Daily Bread, which has been operating temporarily for months now out of First Presbyterian Church fellowship hall on Church Street in Kissimmee.

Downtown merchants want the city to close a soup kitchen that they say caters to trouble in their own back yard.Since it opened in February, the Daily Bread soup kitchen, just a couple of blocks from a rejuvenated downtown district, has provided one free meal a day to dozens of poor Melbourne residents, transients or anyone else who walks through the doors.Although it is only one of about a half-dozen social service agencies in the area, the kitchen has raised the scorn of merchants, who claim it draws vagrants, drunks and worse to the area, effectively strangling their livelihoods.

SANFORD - City commissioners approved a settlement Monday that would allow a downtown soup kitchen to continue operating. However, the other party to the deal - the residents who sued the city to stop the soup kitchen - say they're no longer sure they want to drop their court fight. Attorneys representing the residents say the city took too long to approve the settlement. The settlement restricts the number of people who can be served in a day and also limits the hours the soup kitchen can operate.

Re "Court blocks property seizures," Sept. 6 The recent decision by a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the property rights of the homeless has its roots in the seizure of four shopping carts provided by the group Catholic Worker. Since 1997, Catholic Worker has distributed more than 20,000 free shopping carts to the homeless. These are the property of Catholic Worker and cannot legally be taken by the police. These carts are pervasive around skid row, and they are the bane of the police and the business community.

Daddy cool is left out in the cold after having been unfaithful in "Balancing Act," a well-played and beautifully written Italian drama from scribe-helmer Ivano De Matteo. Though hardly new material, this heartbreaking tale of an essentially decent husband and father, whose life falls apart after an extramarital tryst, is leavened by its Roman sense of humor and a superlative, arguably career-best perf from comedian-thesp Valerio Mastandrea. De Matteo's wider, withering portrait of the impossibility of surviving on a regular income in times of crisis is topical in Italy and further afield, which bodes well for the pic's international potential.

An employee of Daily Bread in Melbourne was arrested Tuesday after a client of the soup kitchen told police that his food-stamp card had never arrived. The client had asked the state to send the card to Daily Bread, which serves many homeless people. He learned the card had been mailed and complained to police April 12. The card was used for a $200 purchase on March 23 at a Publix, Melbourne investigators said. After an investigation, Norma Waters, 49, of Melbourne was arrested this week on charges of theft and fraudulently using the electronic benefit transfer card.

With food costs playing a large role in vacation budgets, it pays to know where you can get great grub for less. Portugal for example, is currently the cheapest place to eat out in Europe, according to a recent price survey. Specifically, in the Algarve region, a succulent seafood soup can ring in at only 3 euros. This same area also sees dish of the day offerings averaging 6 euros, and tourist menu prices for an appetizer or soup, main dish, drink, dessert and coffee can be frequently be found for approximately 10 euros.

A month-long investigation into narcotics sales at a Melbourne soup kitchen culminated with several arrests during a search on Friday, according to a FloridaToday.com report. According to the report, police said nine people sold Oxycodone and cocaine to undercover officers at Daily Bread on Fee Avenue during their investigation. When police raided the place at lunch time on Friday, three of the accused dealers were arrested, as were six other people on unrelated warrants or charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the report.

EATONVILLE -- It was hard to tell who seemed more pleased by the new soup kitchen at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church: the people who came in for a free bowl of soup, or the people who served it to them. The church volunteers took pains to create a welcoming atmosphere that didn't feel like charity. The tables set up in the church hall were covered in lavender tablecloths with sparkly centerpieces, and men's choir member Mack Chandler sat along one wall crooning to recorded gospels and hymns.

SANFORD - Mayor Larry Dale says he has nothing against the city's downtown soup kitchen, he's just doing his job. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation confirmed Wednesday that Dale requested the department's division of hotel and restaurants look into whether the soup kitchen should be licensed by the department. ``I don't care who inspects it,'' Dale said. ``I just want to make sure it gets inspected. I don't think it's any big deal.'' Dale said he wants to determine what state agency should license and inspect the soup kitchen now that it is operating as a restaurant.

EATONVILLE — It was hard to tell who seemed more pleased by the new soup kitchen at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church: the people who came in for a free bowl of soup, or the people who served it to them. The church volunteers took pains to create a welcoming atmosphere that didn't feel like charity. The tables set up in the church hall were covered in lavender tablecloths with sparkly centerpieces, and men's choir member Mack Chandler sat along one wall crooning to recorded gospels and hymns.